Nuzhen

The Grand Duchy of Nuzhen (Chinese: 大女真王國) is a large developed country in Northeast Asia and the second largest member of the Confederation of Chinese Republics. At the moment, it also holds the seat of UN Delegate for the Confederation. Nuzhen comprises a landmass covering most of the Northern part of the Manchurian plain, as well as some parts of the Gobi desert, bordered by Yakutia on the north, the Yalu River and Chaoxian to the East, Menggu in the West, and the rest of the Chinese Republics to the south.

Nomenclature

The formal Beifanghua name for Nuzhen is "Da Nuzhen Wangguo", which directly translated means "The Great Kingdom of Nuzhen", although in an old manuscript dated to 1730, the ruler of Nuzhen was indeed refered to by the Chinese word "gong" (公), roughly corresponding to the English word for Duke. The Chinese title was conferred upon Giocangga I, by the Chinese Emperor after Giocangga united the various Jurchen tribes. Later on, when Nuzhen became a protectorate of the Chinese Empire, Nuzhen was allowed to keep its name to show that it posessed de jure autonomy. It should be noted that the English-language classification of Nuzhen as a "Grand Duchy" does not appear in its Chinese equivalent in any of Nuzhen's historical manuscripts.

In the modern Era, the designation of "Kingdom" in Chinese is still used, although this is simply a matter of tradition, and holds little political reality. Nuzhen is only a monarchy in name, with the Duke having a few political powers. Its status as a Constitutional Monarchy, as well as the presence of a Republican government allowed it entry into the Confederation of Chinese Republics in 2011. The Chancellery of Nuzhen voted 19-1 on May 12, 2015 against changing the formal name of Nuzhen.

People and Culture

Race and ethnicity

The majority of Nuzhen's population belongs to the Nordsinid cluster of the Mongoloid race. Though originally founded as a homeland for the Jurchen (later the Manchu) people, the long history of interaction of Nuzhen and China has effectively Sinicized the region in both ethnic and cultural regards. The latest National Census showed that over 84.6% of the Nuzhen's citizenry is of Han Chinese ethnicity. Ethnic minorities compose the rest of the population, and are distributed as follows:

The census also reported 452,000 permanent residents of foriegn extraction, living in Nuzhen. Since these permanent residents are not citizens of Nuzhen, they are not included in the National Census, but have a seperate census, conducted by the Permanent Resident Affairs Office. The majority of these permanent residents are expatriates from North America or the former Baltic states in Europe.

Language

The official language of the government in Nuzhen is Beifanghua Mandarin, which is essentially identical to Standard Mandarin used throughout the Confederation of Chinese Republics, although a heavy regional accent is evidently in some places. In addition, Manchu, Russian, and Mongol are spoken by the respective minorities in certain areas of Nuzhen. Korean is also spoken by a few thousand people in settlements along the Yalu River. In certain Autonomous Districts, local laws require that signage be written in both Chinese and the local minority language. This is especially true in the northernmost regions where Russians are almost the minority.

Also spoken in Nuzhen is the Han'er language. Han'er is a highly colloquialized form of the Chinese language. Though predominantly Mandarin, it contains many loan words and grammatical features from the Manchu and Mongol languages. Russian has also contributed many words to the vocabulary of Han'er, especially in the field of politics.

Culture

For the most part, Nuzhen is culturally Han Chinese, although there are Manchu elements that have been retained from the Qing dynasty of China. Arts such as painting and calligraphy are still practiced among the conservative gentry of Nuzhen, and tradtional Beijing Opera and Chinese classical music have recently had a resurgence in their popularity.